The Saxon hearthguard (left) move
to head off the patrol, while the rest
engage the forces at the tower.

This time we were again assisted by Andy M as umpire and keeper of the card decks. We rolled up the Border Tower raid from the rulebook, having decided to re-roll when we got the church scenario that we'd done before.

I sent the hearthguard off after Andy's patrol, across the middle of the board, while the warriors and missile troops headed for the tower. In one of those amusing quirks of card-drawing order and dice-roling, the warriors didn't quite make it to Andy's elites, and as a result, I was holding my breath to see which of British Lord and Saxon Leader One came up first the following turn.

Leofric's two warbands wind up just
short of Tribune Andrusius'
comanipulares.

...and, thanks to a rotten cold, I can't actually remember who charged!

Either way, after two rounds, there was a mutual backing-off due to excess shock, followed by Andy's elites backing off further out of subsequent charge range.

Maximus Minimus faces down most
of the Saxon nobles.

About this point, my elites popped out of the wood, facing up against two groups of levy. There was a bit of toing and froing, and the third band of my warriors formed up with Leofric's two, and got stuck in to the levy.

And, due to a revisitation of last time's extraordinarily rubbish dice rolling, actually lost - with hindsight, recovering more shock before I charged would have been wise.

There was, at this point, a lot of everyone backing off and recovering shock.. all except for my hearthguard, which turned to approach the remaining group of Britons, the patrol, who were dearly hoping everyone had forgotten about them.

I advanced. Wound up just under 5" short. Waited for next turn. Aha! Saxon Lord is first up on the activation deck!

And about here is where Geraint gets
himself captured.

Curses! Andy has a Step Forth card in his hand, and gets to activate one noble right there and then, with a nice fat hand... rolls to make contact, and winds up about 1/2" short!

Two rounds of combat later, both of his warrior bands are backing off due to excess shock, one, sadly further than the other, and I'm now rolling three times the number of dice he is. Success! One British noble captured!

Admittedly, I took enough losses doing it to only net myself a Beggar's Bowl of treasure, but Andy's forces also took similar losses, and took a month longer to recover. So I did get a month's unopposed raiding in, and a Thief's Horde of loot. Which would have given me just enough to spread largesse amongst the hearthguard and have them name Aelfric Warlord, except that old Wulfhere needs paying for the amount the Saxons have eaten and (particularly) drunk while using his steading as a jumping-off point, come the end of the year.

So, onward - the year 473 calls, and with it, the unconquered lands of Linnius!